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Women's hockey travels to RIT for CHA first round

February 28, 2013

Women's hockey travels to RIT for CHA first round

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Sixth-seeded Penn State women's hockey is set to take part in its first College Hockey America Tournament beginning with a 2 p.m. faceoff Friday at third-seeded RIT. The best-of-three series continues on Saturday at RIT's Ritter Arena with another 2 p.m. faceoff. If the series reaches game three, RIT hosts again at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The series winner will move on to the CHA Semifinals March 8 in Erie, Pa. All games will be streamed live on AmericaOneSports.com.

GAME NOTES• Penn State takes part in first CHA Tournament as the sixth seed• Nittany Lions travel to RIT for three-game series• Penn State dropped both games at Robert Morris last weekend• Nittany Lions fell twice at RIT two weekends ago• RIT owns a 3-0-1 mark against PSU this season• Freshmen have tallied 75 percent of the team's goals this season

SCOUTING THE TIGERSRIT (14-15-5, 7-8-5 CHA) swept PSU two weeks ago and put up a valiant effort at Mercyhurst before falling, 4-1 and 5-2. In the second game, RIT led Mercyhurst 2-0, but gave up five unanswered goals.

The Tigers average 2.7 goals a game and allow 2.2 goals a game while outshooting opponents by an average of 6.4 shots a game. At forward, RIT is led by Tenecia Hiller (25 points), who has tallied 14 goals this season, half on the power play. The trio of Kourtney Kunichika (24 points), Ariane Yokoyama (23) and Kim Schlattman (22) rounds out the top four scorers.

In net, Ali Binnington has been remarkable, saving 92.5 percent of the shots she's faced with a 2.03 goals-against average. Her record this season is 9-9-4. Two weeks ago, Laura Chamberlain (5-6-1) won both games vs. Penn State.

LAST TIME VS. RITPenn State struggled to find an offensive rhythm on Friday night, falling at RIT's Ritter Arena, 3-1, in a College Hockey America matchup on Friday, Feb. 15. Nicole Paniccia was called upon to make 42 saves, while junior captain Taylor Gross scored Penn State's lone goal in the third period.

On Saturday night, a barrage of second-period shots from RIT led to a comfortable three-goal margin as the Tigers defeated Penn State 4-0 at Ritter Arena. Paniccia did all she could, stopping 41 shots as PSU was more than doubled in shot attempts, 45-20.